Homework Questions
Pick one answer to reply to as your main post response, and then reply to 2 classmates who answered the other question.
2. A primary initiative designed to aid the private sector in the area of science and technology is the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act. Concerning this Act, can you provide a summary regarding its overall objectives, the benefits the private sector derives from it, and what impact it has on our nation’s overall homeland security capabilities?
See this link for additional information regarding the SAFETY Act to supplement the resources provided in your readings and the lesson.
Instructions: Craft your main forum answer is like a short paper directly answering the topic of the week with a well written response that fully utilizes the required readings for the week with at least 250 words. Focus only on the assigned question(s) in a scholarly manner using in-text citations from the required readings (save your personal experiences and opinions for your four forum replies in any given week). Each sentence quoting or paraphrasing any ideas or information from any source must be cited properly including the author and year of publication. Do not cite the APUS lessons — they are just basic information to start the week off and is not meant to be a primary source for you to reference in your reply (to receive full credit you must utilize and cite the listed required readings for that week). If directly quoting from the readings (or other scholarly sources), you must also include the page or paragraph number that you are quoting from like (Hoffman, 2006, p.7) or for articles and sources without pages (Renner, 2016, para.15). If you are directly quoting and there is no page number to cite, then you manually count the paragraphs and cite that number. You also need to have an APA style reference list at the end of your post listing the sources employed. For more on APA citations and reference lists see the APUS Style Guide for APA. You must first provide your own initial forum answer before replying to any classmates or the professor. The four replies of the week are more of a free flowing classroom discussion which offers you an opportunity to leverage your relevant personal experiences and express your thoughts and opinions. Respond to at least two other students initial forum answers with a minimum of 100 words each. In your replies to classmates you may offer your opinion on the topic of the week, substantially support or supplement another student’s answer, or even politely disagree with or challenge their forum answer (but do not ask your classmates questions, or do so only as a last resort per the forum philosophy). You will also reply to my follow up question in your own forum string, and also read and acknowledge the Professor wrap up forum I post toward the end of the week. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree with the readings or a classmate where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process and employing critical thinking and academic freedom. Forum posts are graded based on demonstrated knowledge of the lesson and weekly readings, relevance, timeliness, as well as clarity and quality of analysis and synthesis. Sources utilized to support answers are to come from the weekly readings, but other credible and scholarly sources may be used to supplement (but not replace) the assigned readings. However, dictionaries, encyclopedias and Wikipedia are not scholarly and are not acceptable sources in college level work. Do not use non-scholarly open websites as sources for your reply to the main forum answer. All forum work must be completed within the academic week. When replying to the main forum answer make sure to include your name in the “topic title” of your initial forum answer/response.
Forum Grading Rubric: Answers the forum question(s) with a relevant, coherent and scholarly initial forum response (>250 words) 20/20; demonstrates lesson comprehension in forums with no more than 10% of content as direct quotes 15/15; employs complete and proper APA in-text parenthetical citations of the required readings for this week 10/10; responses to two classmates initial forum answers (>100 words each) 20/20; quality answer to professor follow-up question 20/20, main forum has APA reference list at end of forum (including the required readings) 5/5; reads and acknowledges professors end of week wrap up forum 10/10.
Student #1 Bruce
Prompt 1
This week, attention has been focused upon the private sector’s involvement in the areas of science and technology, and the impact it has upon our Nation’s homeland security efforts. Therefore, you are asked to provide an overview of a product or service that has been produced by the private sector and has a direct impact on homeland security efforts. In addition, offer details regarding the private sector entity responsible for such technology as well.
Answer
The Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act was drafted to promote private sector development of sciences and technologies to be used in supporting homeland security (DHS, 2002). The purpose of this Act was to provide the private sector with protections from liabilities which would otherwise stifle creativity and make development of new technologies useful to the homeland security enterprise (HSE) financially unviable (Benda, 2011). Private sector companies, like the FLIR corporation from my hometown, generate products which are registered under the SAFETY Act to assist both the military and the homeland security enterprise in their continuing mission to safeguard America. FLIR has produced a number or products over the years which have proven useful to the DOD and HSE and a discussion of one such product will be described below.
Registered under the SAFETY Act and delivered in 2013, FLIR’s Agentase Enzyme-Based CAD Kit and Detection Spray is a field-capable chemical warfare agent detection kit that is handy and portable. Because the kit is able to detect nerve agents, blister agents, and blood agents like G and V series nerve agents, sulfur mustard, and cyanide, respectively (DHS, 2013), the kit allows first responders to test contaminated environments quickly and accurately. The Agentase Enzyme-Based CAD Kit and Detection Spray is not FLIR’s only product, nor is it their flagship product, but it does have uses by the HSE and DOD for appraisal of CBRN environments. As the evolving threat landscape continues to show evidence of America’s adversaries’ pursuit of CBRN weapons, companies like FLIR’s ability to develop a wide range of HSE-minded products benefits not only their business model but the safety of America as well.
The FLIR corporation got their name from their first product: Forward Looking InfraRed. A good example of FLIR’s first product is to look at the thermal imaging system mounted on the front of the Apache helicopter. FLIR produces a plethora of products including thermal imaging systems, advanced threat detection systems, measurement and diagnostic equipment, night vision systems, camera guided missile guidance systems, and they handle the development, manufacture, marketing, and distribution all “in house” (FLIR, 2018). If someone is a firefighter, soldier, pilot, HAZMAT/CBRN SME, or another type of first responder, there is a strong chance that they have used a FLIR product at one time or another though out the course of their profession. Companies like FLIR keep America’s HSE and DOD at the forefront of the Global War On Terror (GWOT).
References
Benda, P. (2011). Unlocking the SAFETY Act’s potential to promote technology and combat terrorism. Testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies, Washington, D.C. May 26.
Department of Homeland Security. (2002). Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002.Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Department of Homeland Security. (2013). SAFETY ACT Approved Technologies: FLIR Systems, Inc. Retrieved from https://www.safetyact.gov/lit/at/aa.
FLIR. (2018). About FLIR | FLIR Systems. Retrieved from https://www.flir.com/about/about-flir/.
Student #2 Jacob
1. This week, attention has been focused upon the private sector’s involvement in the areas of science and technology, and the impact it has upon our Nation’s homeland security efforts. Therefore, you are asked to provide an overview of a product or service that has been produced by the private sector (if possible, one that is utilized within the critical infrastructure sector you have been focusing upon throughout this course) and has a direct impact on homeland security efforts. In addition, offer details regarding the private sector entity responsible for such technology as well. Adequately support such information with appropriate resources obtained from conducting your research. Some suggested starting points would be the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Section and the SAFETY Act’s list of approved technologies.
Cyber security is an issue that the communications sector faces at a constant rate. Many firms have worked with the Department of Homeland Security to create a program to protect computer systems from threats. The Florida Institute of Technology has been working with DHS to create a system to mitigate those threats. The Federated Command and Control (FC2) infrastructure by the mixing “of physically separated hardware network spaces and virtualized enclaves automatically joined to form federations. These federations then automatically shared attack indicators, recommended and applied defensive responses, and performed various privacy-preserving joint calculations” (Department of Homeland Security, 2018). This will help in giving an advantage to agencies in the sharing of information will helping to prevent the intrusion of malicious or threating attacks on computer systems. Cybersecurity is one of the hot topic issues in trying to not only protect the communications sector but all the critical infrastructures. Communications internally within each sector and outside communication is key in protecting the critical infrastructures. The environment of security within the communications sector is constantly changing and the private sector has been able to provide vital new innovative ways to prevent and stop threats. These advancements in security will help to slow down potential threats but the private and public sectors must continue to work together to continue advancements in improving the security. The private sector is the leader in being able to provide this service. “The civilian side of the government lacks the expertise and manpower to do the job effectively, which is why the DHS has announced plans to hire 1,000 new cyber experts. Until these experts are on board—finding and hiring that many will be a long process—civilian defenses will need to rely on existing expertise, predominantly in the NSA” (Mayer, 2011). The infrastructure in the public sector is just not capable of taking on such a large workload to be able to combat the threats.
– Jake
References
Mayer, M.A., Carafano, J. J., & Zuckerman, J. (2011). Homeland Security 4.0: Overcoming centralization, complacency, and politics. The Heritage Foundation: Leadership for America. Washington, D. C.: The Heritage Foundation, 22-24.
Department of Homeland Security. (2018). Snapshot: S&T Explores a More Dynamic Cybersecurity Approach. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2018/08/21/snapshot-st-explores-more-dynamic-cybersecurity-approach.
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